Weather radars, such as found on aircraft or marine vessels, display hazardous weather information based upon analyzed radar returns. Radar return information corresponding to detected hazardous weather information is presented to the crew of the aircraft or marine vessel on a display, typically using a plan view showing a geographic area over which the aircraft or vessel is traversing.
However, weather radars have a limited effective range. Supplemental weather radar information may be provided to the aircraft from remote sources. For example, ground-based weather radar systems can provide supplemental weather radar information to an aircraft. An exemplary supplemental weather radar information apparatus and method is described in the commonly assigned U.S. utility application to Brian Bunch, et. al., entitled, “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR USING NEXRAD INFORMATION TO VERIFY WEATHER RADAR INFORMATION,” having Ser. No. 12/476,726, filed on Jun. 2, 2009, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Aircraft weather information may be based upon two-dimensional (2-D) databases which are filled with radar return information (using bins, for example, based on range and bearing values with respect to the current location of the aircraft). In other embodiments, the presented weather radar displays may be based upon 3-D databases which are filled with radar return information (using 3-D bins or voxels, for example, based on range, azimuth, and bearing values with respect to the current location of the aircraft). An exemplary embodiment of a 3-D weather radar system is implemented in accordance with the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,710, filed on Feb. 19, 2002, to Cornell et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Although ground-based supplemental weather radar information may extend the effective range of an aircraft's airborne radar system, such ground-based supplemental weather radar information is not available in a format that is readily integrated into an airborne radar weather information database. Accordingly, it is desirable to improve the ground-based supplemental weather radar information for integration into the aircraft's airborne radar weather information database. Similar needs exist in other types of radar systems that may be configured to incorporate supplemental weather radar information into their respective radar information databases.